OSAKA, a city of Japan in the province of Settsu. Pop. (1931) 2,453;573. It lies in a plain bounded, except westward, where it opens on Osaka Bay, by hills of considerable height, on both sides of the Yodogawa, or rather its headwater the Aji (the outlet of Lake Biwa), and is so intersected by river-branches and canals as to suggest a comparison with a Dutch town. Steam ers ply between Osaka and Kobe-Hiogo or Kobe, and Osaka is an important railway centre. The opening of the railway (1873) drew foreign trade to Kobe, but a harbour for ocean-steamers has been constructed at Osaka. Shin-sai Bashi Suji, the principal thoroughfare, leads from Kitahama, the district lying on the south side of the Tosabori, to the iron suspension bridge (Shin-sai Bashi) over the Dotombori. The foreign settlement is at Kawa guchi at the junction of the Shirinashi and the Aji. It is the seat of a number of European mission stations. Buddhist and Shinto temples are numerous. The principal secular buildings are the castle, the mint and the arsenal. The castle was founded in 1583 by Hideyoshi ; the enclosed palace, probably the finest building in Japan, survived the capture of the castle by Iyeyasu (1615), and in 1867 and 1868 witnessed the reception of the foreign legations by the Tokugawa shoguns; but in the latter year it was fired by the Tokugawa party. It now provides military head quarters, containing a garrison and an arsenal. The whole castle is protected by high and massive walls and broad moats. The mint, erected and organized by Europeans, was opened in 1871. Osaka possesses iron-works, sugar refineries, cotton spinning mills, shipyards and a great variety of other manufactures.
Osaka owes its origin to Rennio Shonin, the eighth head of the Shin-Shu sect, who in 1495-1496 built, on the site now occupied by the castle, a temple which afterwards became the principal residence of his successors. In 158o, after ten years' successful defence of his position, Kenryo, the eleventh "abbot," was obliged to surrender; and in 1583 the victorious Hideyoshi made Osaka his capital. The city brought several suburban districts within its boundaries in 1925, becoming temporarily the most populous city in Japan. In 1909 one-third of the city was destroyed by fire and though it was rebuilt with wider streets and better buildings, there are still many wooden houses and bridges, dan gerous in case of fire, and its factories and warehouses compare less favourably with European and American standards than those of Tokyo. Work on a drainage system was started in 1909, but is still incomplete. Electric railways connect the city with Kobe.
Trade has grown very largely, but most goods are loaded and discharged at Kobe, as the river is only navigable for small vessels. A fourth shipbuilding yard was opened in 1911. A pharmaceutical school was opened in 1917 and in 1919 the university of medicine was made into a general university. The spread of pulmonary tuberculosis has caused alarm and a tuberculosis laboratory has been opened. In 1919 a municipal home for workpeople, including a children's clinic, was inaugurated. (See JAPAN.)